A Short Bright Flash: Augustin Fresnel and the Birth of the Modern Lighthouse
| Author | : | |
| Rating | : | 4.69 (618 Votes) |
| Asin | : | 039306879X |
| Format Type | : | paperback |
| Number of Pages | : | 288 Pages |
| Publish Date | : | 2014-04-04 |
| Language | : | English |
DESCRIPTION:
(Publishers Weekly)Homage to the man who turned feeble-and-far-between harbor lights into a global multitude of brilliant beacons. (Henry Petroski - The Wall Street Journal) . Gales, executive director, U.S. (Matthew Tiffany - Minneapolis Star Tribune)University of Mississippi history professor Levitt details the birth and golden age of a maritime icon in this fascinating book. An excellent book and a joy to read. Theresa Levitt’s superior work has illustrated the genius and ongoing legacy of Augustin Fresnel, whose brilliance not only saved lives but had an everlasting impact on the dev
"An Enlightening Story" according to John Lienhard. Here's a wonderfully-engaging, two-pronged story. First, Augustin Fresnel's life - set against the turmoil following the French Revolution. We're buoyed by the odd arc of Fresnel's short life. He gave us fundamental pieces of the theory of light, then made one of the great inventions of the 19th century. Finally, he translated that invention into a profoundly practical device. Fresnel's lighthouse lens radically improved the protection of shipping from shoreline dangers at a time when shipping and shipwrecks were dramatically increasing.. A Short Bright Flash – Augustin Fresnel and the Birth of the Modern Lighthouse Peter H Hames If you have ever visited a lighthouse then you have probably marveled at the huge lens that focuses the light into a single beam visible for miles at sea. I did not realize that the Fresnel lens was named for a Frenchman who revolutionized the scientific thinking of 1800’s with his physics of light (waves versus particles). Augustin Fresnel was awarded a Grand Prize by The Academy of Science in1819 for his wave theory of light. He was next assigned to the French Lighthouse Commission to work on improving their lighthouses. Lighthou. Interesting, but the scientific explanations could be better This book can be divided into two parts, roughly of equal length. The first part of the book is a biography of the French civil engineer Augustin Fresnel that emphasizes his contributions to optics, particularly his development of the "Fresnel lens." This part of the book also describes the political and technological complications that accompanied the adoption of this lens for lighthouses throughout Europe (mainly France and Britain). The second part of the book concerns lighthouses in the United States. It is mainly the story of how th
Americans, too, resisted abandoning their primitive lamps, but the superiority of the Fresnel lens could not be denied for long. How a scientific outsider came up with a revolutionary theory of light and saved untold numbers of lives. Augustin Fresnel (1788–1827) shocked the scientific elite with his unique understanding of the physics of light. Battling the establishment, his own poor health, and the limited technology of the time, Fresnel was able to achieve his goal of illuminating the entire French coast. 60 illustrations, 6 maps. At first, the British sought to outdo the new Fresnel-equipped lighthouses as a matter of national pride. The lens he invented was a brilliant feat of engineering that made lighthouses blaze many times brighter, farther, and more efficiently. shores than they were drafted: the Union blockaded the Confederate coast; the Confederacy set about thwarting it by dismantling and hiding or destroying the powerful new lights. No sooner were Fresnel lenses finall
Theresa Levitt held the McDonnell-Barksdale Chair of History of Science at the University of Mississippi and is associate professor of history there. A graduate of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, she has a master’s degree in history from Iowa State University and a PhD from Harvard University. She was the recipient of a